Agnew, who has been praising the city in a series of tweets tagged #loveadelaide, then retweeted a fan’s response.

“Just as I was starting to feel proud of how our state must have looked to our visitors over the past 5 days, we go and ruin it #storyofourlives #classicadelaide #nannystate #foreverbackwards,” Justin Kingsmill responded to Agnew.

Booked for walking across a deserted street at 0045. Adelaide! I used to love you! How sad.

Declaring “that was all rather strange last night”, Agnew then said it was time to go home — he flies out for England today — and thanked his BBC colleagues before closing by tweeting a picture of the River Torrens and Adelaide Oval.

“When I’m asked at home if you’re given the option of where would you go to watch a Test match, I’d say Adelaide ... I just always love the place,” he said.

Police said they had no record of this morning’s incident.

But Agnew is not alone. As reported in February this year, thousands of pedestrians have been fined almost $600,000 for stepping out of line in the past five years, prompting calls for a change to “nanny state’’ traffic laws.

Those figures came as police warned pedestrians they would be fined for ignoring road rules as tourists flocked to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival and Mad March events.

At the time, Family First MP Dennis Hood said cautioning 3476 pedestrians and fining a further 5171 a total $587,723 – mostly for crossing against lights – since 2012 was a “waste of police resources’’.

He said laws should be changed to those used in the UK, where pedestrians are allowed to cross the road anywhere as long as it was deemed safe.

EXTREME: Furious Jaywalker Runs After Car When Consumed by Rage August 040:51

This man recently had a near miss in Napa, California, when a jaywalker appeared from seemingly nowhere and just avoided his car as he was driving towards a junction, with the lights green in the motorist’s favour. The jaywalker’s reaction was then quite startling; chasing, and momentarily sprinting, after the driver in visible rage, as the car turned at the junction. Credit: YouTube/Bad Drivers Of Napa Valley